1,000 refugees to return to Syria Thursday: Lebanese Security

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Lebanese General Security said about 1,000 Syrian refugees are set to return to their home country this week, The Daily Star reported on Wednesday.

About 55,000 Syrian refugees had returned since July, according to the Lebanese Caretaker Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Mouin Merehbi, such a number contrasts with that announced by General Security in November, which put the number of returnees at almost 90,000 during the same period.

Syrian activists have voiced concern about the fate of the Syrian refugees returning from Lebanon after Merehbi's statements who assured that 20 Syrian refugees who had returned from Lebanon to Syria had been killed by

regime forces.

The conflict has displaced more than 5 million Syrians outside the country, the United Nations says, with more than half displaced to Turkey and most of the rest split between Lebanon and Jordan

The Lebanese Army last week arrested 300 Syrian refugees in the border town of Arsal for not having the "Public Security Card" that allows them to be present on Lebanese territory, activists said.

The campaign took place in 25 camps were 20 refugee women had been arrested.

The Lebanese media claimed that the arrest campaign was to arrest the wanted displaced.

Arsal's border camps are one of the largest along the Syrian border were about 80,000 Syrian refugees live in 117 camps near the Lebanese border with Syria.

Thousands of Syrians are unable to return because their homes were destroyed in the fighting, or because they region fear military conscription or retribution from regime forces.

A survey made by Zaman al-Wasl on a random sample of refugees in the camps of Arsal, including 210 refugees, showed that 92% of the refugees had refused to return, while 8% had agreed to return to the towns that they described as safe in the western Qalamoun.

Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 470,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced.